Businesses are not limited to widely available commercial products. Other options can be a better choice in certain situations, especially where the software needs of a company are quite specialized or trade-specific, or commercial products simply fail to offer the required features even when using the programming facilities offered by database, spreadsheet and other office-suite products.

Businesses then have two options. They can look for a trade-specific package that is designed specifically for the kind of work they do, or they can have software developed to order. The big advantage of trade-specific packages is that they speak the same language as your business, and are in theory written by people who understand how that business should be run.

Nonetheless, with this kind of software, it is best to check that it really does do what you want it to. No software should ever be bought on the spur of the moment after a short demonstration. For trade-specific packages that are quite complex, you should spend anywhere from half a day to a day having the software demonstrated to you. If you plan to hand it over to your staff rather than use it directly, then at least one staff member should come with you.

After the demonstration it is very useful to go away and allow some time to consider how the software may be able to help your business, and try to find problems or tasks with which it will not be able to help. It may be worth producing a formal, written specification for the kinds of work for which you would like to use the software, in order to see if any essential features are missing. At this stage, queries and misgivings should become obvious, and the software is only worth considering seriously if the supplier can set your mind at rest about it.